"I always trust you. And I always end up screwed." - Rest in peace Kevin.

I would miss him so much more if he had had a more substantial role this season. Its kind of a toss up as to whether re-energized Castiel will bring him back or if the New Prophet who emerges is going to be a female. It would be kind of neat to have a strong female character, but I did really like Kevin Tran. And now I wonder if we'll ever find out if Mrs Tran is alive somewhere. She was awesome.

I am also going to miss Castiel as a human. The episodes showing him exploring his humanity have been among my favorites.

_________________My oven is bigger on the inside, and it produces lots of wibbly wobbly, cake wakey... stuff. - The PoopieB.

I liked the twist of Abbaddon ("The World's Angriest Ginger") and Crowley campaigning for the hearts and minds of Hell. And previews showing Dean and Crowley being the good cop bad cop buddy comedy is giving me the giggles.

_________________My oven is bigger on the inside, and it produces lots of wibbly wobbly, cake wakey... stuff. - The PoopieB.

That really was a great episode - probably some of the best character development they've had in seasons.

I'm so glad that Kevin's death has had an actual impact on the show. I was entirely expecting a few mopey scenes and then a return to the status quo. Also loved that Dean and Cas had a chance to bond again. And of course I loved Crowley, but I always love Crowley. Sam continues to be petulant, but at least in this episode it was pretty justified.

When Crowley said "The Poor Giant Baby's in trouble again, isn't he?" I laughed out loud and then rewound a few times to listen to it over and over again. If you were to sum up this entire show in one line, that'd be it.

_________________My oven is bigger on the inside, and it produces lots of wibbly wobbly, cake wakey... stuff. - The PoopieB.

When Crowley said "The Poor Giant Baby's in trouble again, isn't he?" I laughed out loud and then rewound a few times to listen to it over and over again. If you were to sum up this entire show in one line, that'd be it.

It was EXCELLENT. I also loved when Crowley said to dean "I love you too" :D

_________________"T-shirts are not allowed in heaven, Karyn. They don't do casual Fridays." - Amandabear

OH MY GOD that was amazing. I loved Cain and the resolution with Dean and Crowley at the end. Wow. The actor who played Cain was amazing, and stood up to Jensen and Mark Sheppard so well. If this show could have that level of performance all the time, it would be amazing.

The Sam/Castiel storyline was clunky, heavyhanded and got lost in comparison, but perhaps only because the Cain/Dean/Crowley storyline was so action-packed, tight and engrossing.

I am interested to see how the Cain/Abel parallels play out for the rest of the season.

Also, what the heck is a kraken squeezing?

_________________My oven is bigger on the inside, and it produces lots of wibbly wobbly, cake wakey... stuff. - The PoopieB.

I want to see not-clunky Sam-Castiel plotlines! I feel like there could be so much there.

I also agree though that the Dean/Crowley/Cain plotline was well done. I liked the episode overall and am glad in a way that Crowley still managed to be a complete dumbpants.

I'm unsure why Dean has this driving need to kill Abaddon, enough to partner with Crowley. Also, way to go him on jumping into things without knowing the consequences. That's exactly what got them in the last pickle.

_________________"Vegan to me means Oreos for breakfast." -Poopiebitch"tl;dr: I quit working to drink beer paid for with gift cards" erikasoyf*cker

Well, yes. When he was saying "Yes" to the Mark, I was just thinking "OMG ASK ABOUT THE BURDEN! AT WORST YOU MIGHT GET SOME ACTUAL INFORMATION." But no. Just " you had me at 'Kill the bisque.'" Way to play the long game, dude! But the fight scenes were the best they've had for a long time.

The clunkiness of Sam and Castiel was so bad! Maybe it was too much talking, but really I felt like the writers were making the dialogue work way too hard. And the actors didn't really convey all that pathos in their acting. That was a giant needle though. I winced when it was coming out of Sam. I love gentle Castiel - I think Misha has so much nuance as an actor. But I don't know if Jared can really bring it, in the same way. (AND YOU KNOW I LOVE JARED. appifanie). I just think that the peanut butter sandwich was more convincing than Sam.

I feel bad for Tara. Her death sounded unpleasant.

_________________My oven is bigger on the inside, and it produces lots of wibbly wobbly, cake wakey... stuff. - The PoopieB.

Yeah, I squee'd a little when Cas finally got his hug from Sam, but that dialogue was painful. The PB&J metaphor could have been cute if it were subtle, but unfortunately the writer's felt the need to slap us in the face with a peanut butter sandwich every time we crossed to the bunker. Props to Misha just for getting through those lines with a straight face.

I could watch a whole season of Crowley Dean and Cain's Awkward Tea Party.

I normally really like that writer, so I don't even know. The director is some big deal movie director dude, but it was his first ep of SPN, and it just like, flowed wrong? I dunno, it just felt off. But that's kind of been the undercurrent of all of season nine. Even the well written episodes it's just-off.

_________________In addition to BB creams, we now have CC creams and even DD creams. Where's my ZZ cream? I need help growing a sweet beard.-amandabear

The actor who played Cain was amazing, and stood up to Jensen and Mark Sheppard so well.

LOVE TIM OMUNDSON SO MUCH.

+1 YUMMY OMG

And yes to everything else people said. The Sam/Cas dialogue was frustrating. They used to be so good at portraying character development subtly, but I guess now they just plug it into the script so they don't have to work for it? I agree that Misha did a great job with the lines he was given, though. And I admit to squeaking a little when Sam hugged Cas, and instead of getting awkward he was just like "this is the part where you hug me back." It was a real Winchester hug, like he's part of the fam now.

I did think the Cain/Abel story was interesting - the parallels of Dean and Sam saving each other by doing the wrong things for the right reasons was pretty clear. I wonder if there was a reason for the beekeeper thing that will play out later - I would have expected him to be a farmer (or at least have a vegetable garden).

I liked the good old "Monster of the Week" storyline, and it was such a relief to have bright lighting. For whatever reason, I feel like a lot of the recent episodes have been so dark that you struggle to see anything. But here, with the spa everything was bright and easy on the eyes. And it was nice to have there be some light humor (Sam being a terrible trainer, Dean eating all the pudding and accidentally drugging himself (hello pudding!)) and I felt that the jokes were at the expense of Sam and Dean, rather than the overweight patrons or victims, for example, I thought it was fun that Dean was nodding in agreement when Slim Jim's wife was talking about why she was having an affair with a heavier man ("sometimes its nice to feel a little give.") - it was nice and not bodyshaming.

And I liked that they had a monster who wasn't a huge threat but rather a parasite.

On the bigger arc issues, it would have been nice had they alluded to the Mark of Cain, and I am kind of tired of brother flipflop (it seems like there is a coin toss whenever they have a monster that isn't completely evil and either Sam or Dean argues for it to stay alive) and the Sam speech at the end "You're always happy to sacrifice as long as you're not the one getting hurt" seemed kind of to miss all the times that Dean has gotten hurt to save Sam and that Sam has made the same choice as Dean in various situations. So can we just move on to another dynamic already? Brother lies to brother to save him, turns out he made a bad deal, revelation, indignation, resolution, back to the start is getting old.

Not yet, Biodancer. I was super confused because I thought she would be in last week's episode because she was in the preview, but the preview was for the entire season, not that specific episode. So I'm guessing she'll be showing up soon.